Read 180: Deadly Thunderstorms
Read 180: Deadly Thunderstorms: Some of you might have taken Read 180 in school. It's a program that's supposed to help people read better, even those with learning disabilities. Ty is the host of the program, and Jackie is the narrator of the stories in the Reading Zone. I remember taking it in high school, and was a hit in the classroom, until one day, something strange happened. It was a chilly, October Monday morning. "I'm sorry...." our teacher said, "but we're not doing the Read 180 computer program today. I....don't know what else to do." He was acting very strange, and I could tell from the look on his face. He had a pale, white face, his body looked like it was about to starve, and his legs looked like they were about to collapse. He looked at the clock strangely, and looked at us saying those three words, "Class......is........dismissed." The rest of my classmates headed out the door, while I stayed behind and decided to check out the program myself, as my teacher headed to the nurse's office. I logged onto one of the many computers, and I was on the Read 180 computer program. Apparently I started a new stage, Stage 16, and Ty came on and looked completely different. He wasn't wearing a Read 180 shirt at all, he was wearing a drenched, black raincoat, and told me, "Congratulations, kid! You made it to the Secret Stage of the Read 180 program! Now click on the Reading Zone, you doofus!" That didn't sound like Ty at all, and it certainly didn't look like him. So I mumbled to myself, 'Whatever', and clicked on the Reading Zone, and suddenly, the classroom went completely dark. I looked outside and saw that it was still windy, and after a few seconds, the power went back on. Suddenly, a download appeared out of nowhere as a pop-up on the school computer, that was titled 'DeadlyThunderstorms.avi'. I couldn't believe it! This has never happened in Read 180 before! I clicked on the video and the first part was a black screen, with Ty stating, "My friend Cesar is going to talk to you about what this secret stage is about, so anyways, just sit glued onto your seat with your headphones on, and enjoy! Cesar, get the hell over here!" I didn't know that 'hell' was even a bad word or not, and couldn't believe that Ty would even say such a word. Cesar showed up, one of the Read 180 people, and was holding a broken umbrella and said, "Welcome to the Death Zone! Today, we're going to be talking about 4 Deadly Disasters! For this episode, we're talking about Deadly Thunderstorms, which are storms that kill thousands of people every year!" Cesar sounded like he was on drugs, and he wasn't wearing a shirt, his chest was covered in blood. It was kinda scary to me, because even though it was high school, I felt like I was watching some kind of R-rated horror movie from the 80s. The Read 180 logo then showed up, with Jackie reading the title screen in a creepy, demented voice: "Deadly Thunderstorms". The video then showed a neighborhood of broken houses, and dark, black clouds were coming in. Wind was blowing very hard, and the roofs of the houses were flying off in the wind. Cesar narrated the video, "Deadly Thunderstorms are some of the deadliest natural disasters in all of America. In fact, every year, thousands of Americans are killed by those deadly disasters!" It then showed a news report with a creepy, glitchy screen, which had a woman reporting about a Deadly Thunderstorm in Austin, Texas. Cesar continued, "In 1983, all of Austin, Texas, was destroyed by one of those storms. Even the news reporter died!" It suddenly showed people running away from deadly clouds, with lightning striking some people, including a woman that looked a bit like Madonna, and an old man in a wheelchair who fell into a lake. It then showed a church crumbling down into pieces, with a priest crying for help. But no one came to his rescue. Cesar then explained, "Austin was completely destroyed, there were dead bodies everywhere! Sadly, no one payed attention to the news, all they ever cared about was......The Police and their hit song, 'Every Breath You Take'". It then showed a Police concert being destroyed by a lightning strike, with the stage burning on fire, and everyone was burning, including them band themselves! It then showed someone's child burning as Cesar said, "Children and families burned as they were struck by lightning, and never survived!" The last scene of the video showed a bunch of skeletons in a museum, and then Cesar said, "Do NOT ever go out during a deadly thunderstorm! It will KILL YOU!" The video ended, and then Ty said, "Now CLICK OUT OF THE GODDAMN VIDEO AND READ THE FUCKING PARAGRAPH!" I wasn't expecting this. Ty never swore before, so I closed the video and decided to let Jackie read the paragraph. "Read, you idiot!" screamed Ty, and then Jackie read the paragraph, with 4 words I have never heard of in Read 180 before, they were "Decease", "Cyclone", "Blaze" and a strange, creepy word, "Bloodstrike". It was very strange. Anyways, I used the microphone on my headset to record the paragraph, and then I stopped, and Ty yelled pretty loud, "I CAN'T HEAR YOU, YOU SON OF A BITCH! CAN'T YOU READ A LITTLE BIT LOUDER??????" I wanted to record again, but then it went back to the main menu with Ty saying, "Congratulations! You finished the Reading Zone! Now go to the Word Zone or YOU WILL BE DEAD!" As soon as I clicked on the Word Zone, a black and white spiral showed up, and lightning was coming out of it. "All right. I regret it, but turn off your computer. NOW!" Ty screamed, and I tried turning it off with the monitor, and then Ty's face showed up and said, "TURN IT OFF! NOW!" I did it a thousand times, until the girl from the Read 180 segment about LaGuardia High School from middle school showed up, and then stated, "Hey, don't listen to Ty! He's a psychopath, so why don't you click on the Spelling Zone in the corner of your screen?" As soon as I clicked on the Spelling Zone, the girl shouted "Bloodstrike" and suddenly got struck by lightning. "JACKIE! TY! PLEASE TAKE OVER THE SPELLING ZONE! PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE!" She then collapsed onto the ground, and was unconscious. She died. "I suffered a major bloodstrike after I was stabbed to death by my mother." Ty then said, and I typed in the word in the blank line. As soon as I hit enter, Jackie screamed "DECEASE" and then Ty's voice started to glitch. "CYCLONE" screamed Jackie, and then Ty showed up, and got struck by lightning. Jackie's voice then glitched as well, but then, the Spelling Zone started to disintegrate, with pixels flying all around the computer screen, and even onto my computer mouse, which felt very electric. The mouse then exploded in front of me, it felt like a nuclear bomb in the Read 180 classroom. Good thing I wasn't using it, otherwise I would have been seriously injured. The Spelling Zone then had a button saying, "Click with your fingers". I touched the screen, and Ty was replaced by the guy from Reading Rainbow, and he said, "Now it's time for the Success Zone! You don't have to take MY word for it!" I clicked on the Success Zone with my fingers. TBH, this was the strangest, most creepiest Read 180 day I have ever had. I don't know why, but now I know why my teacher acted strange, and why class was let out early. The Success Zone showed the video again, but this time, it had an extended ending. There were thousands of dead bodies scattered on the ground. Two of the dead bodies were the girl from the LaGuardia High School video and Ty, covered in blood and soot. Their heads were bulging, and their eyes had come out of their eye sockets. Ty had no arms, while the girl was missing a foot. There was also a woman with a tattoo that read "Jackie", and the tattoo was made of blood, and her hair was falling out of her head, and blood was pouring out of her scalp. I couldn't believe that Jackie was dead! Same with the rest of the gang. Cesar showed up as well, and stabbed himself to death with the broken umbrella, claiming, "Bloodstrike shall sought me now!" and died, blood pouring out of his bloody chest. After the video, I logged out and just left. This is why I don't take Read 180 anymore. Now I'm taking college courses in college. I still miss my friends, though.